Lika’s Log

Festivals are for kids. Big kids, little kids, young kids and old kids too. You know how alot of kids now days catch a bad rep and respectfully so cause some kids are ugly and you wonder who raised them. But lets not go there right now.

A lot of times its not the kids choice to participate in dance class. With Polynesian/Local kids I think its part of the culture. Its a no brainer, as Polynesians dats wot we do yeah. You cannot have anything Aloha, anything Polynesian without song and dance. Oh, grindz too but dats a given wit everybody. Well maybe not da finger sandwich peoples doe. LOL But I digress…

The following are pictures of a bunch of kids that danced at Aloha Festival. I think they are with Tausala from Mesa, AZ. I was watching/taking pictures from behind the stage. The front was way to crowded claustraphobic for me. So I stood behind the stage taking pic-chas.

Da boys waiting for there turn to go on. The did a Figian dance (I think).

Rear view of kids dancing. The leaves were used like an implement/weapon. They were really cute.

Dancing a spear dance. But they no had spears just sticks.

All the dancing and singing takes time and practice. I’m sure others in the family dance and sing too. Its a family affair. But these should be very proud of their heritage and talents. I think it shows in their performance that they are proud and talented. At least they doing some constructive as oppose to destructive, yeah.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took. The kids were just playing on the hill.

Juss cute yeah. Ua pau fo’now.

True story: Couple of years ago I’m at my cousins house in Phoenix fo’eat; and a bunch of guest show up. My cousin yells “EH YOU grew up in Ewa hah?” I yell back, “yeah Fernandez Village.” The guy who came in looks at me and holds up da dog tag on his key chain. I go get my key chain, I hold up my dog tag. Us crack up. Gotta be Ewa yeah. It turns out; cause you know small world, he’s my olda sistas classmate.

OH, da dog tags: back in da day early 60’s think Bay of Pigs la dat; peoples tawt Hawaii would get sneak attacked again. Well they - da big peoples I guess - figgahed out if us get bombed going be day time, da kids in school da parent stay hanahana. So Ewa School sold dog tags for da kids, for 25cents you could order a dog tag and on it it has your parents name & your address. Some people put blood type or allergic to something or asmatic woteva. But small time we all wore our dog tags. AND we had bomb drills regularly. Duck unda da desk and cova yo’head. I’m serious.

The following pictures are of The Gerald Toki School of Kali. Kali is probably better known as Escrima, Filipino martial arts. You know using da two sticks kine. Escrima is really the Spanish given name, Kali is an ancient Filipino/Indonesian form of martial arts. There are also different styles and systems of Kali. The following are pictures from the demonstration they put on at Aloha Festival.

Fighting wit da sticks. Did you know dat da sticks are just substitute for da bolo knife or any weapon? Duh, I didn’t know dat. I just tawt dey beat yo’ass using sticks. Its really to disarm a person with a weapon. You know Filipinos and dey cut cane knife yeah. LOL

This is a picture of two sisters that practice Kali. They are the cutest thing and they look like they having so much fun. I watched them last year too and they are always fun to watch.

Here the girls are sparring with a partner. I think the guy in the blue & red sash is da Fahdah. I’m not sure. The bolohead guy is Gerald. He’s tall as me. Ok he’s taller. My cousin always told me, if you in one fight; you want Gerald by your side. *L* I think he became MASTA of his art form cause he got tired of all da Ewa bulls humbugging him.

Doing katas:

Students & Guru:

The schools logo:

If you go to youtube.com and search Arizona Aloha Festival 08 & Kali you will see these demonstrations being done. Check out da sistas, dey just cute.

Ua pau fo’now.

The Arizona Aloha Festival is held every year the 3rd weekend in March. Its been going on for about 15 years? Give or take some; long time doe. It started wit one stage, now get tree(3)! The Festival is held in the downtown Phoenix area; an area called Heritage Square Park and the Science Center. Its like a block from Chase field where the Diamondbacks play ball. In fact thats where most cars park. $10.00s! Scarey yeah. Its considered a “free family even in Phoenix.” Well hello if they charged admission no one would show up. $10 for parking is far from free yeah. But as da City of Phoenix yeah, as how dey make dey money.

This is the Rosson House. Its a museum, I think. LOL I’ve never been in it cause gotta pay. Why I going look at Victorian stuff and when get all da vendors and stages to go look see free, yeah. This was taken wen I first got here so people are still setting up. We had to be there at 8:15 for a opening ceremony run thru. This was taken before 8AM.

You see all the tents as all part of the food court. So if you was there, you would inhale and smell hulihuli chicken. I standing like on the second level of a parking structure taking these pictures. The picture below as taken afta opening ceremony so was pushing 11AM I think. Oh and da lines for grindz, long you know….

OK now this is way way across da ada way. LOL This is the Lathhouse Stage. Thats where we danced. We were grateful for this stage because it is shadey. Last year it was 100 degrees, serious kine and us had burn feet from da astro turf on da stage. So this stage was cool. Literally and figuratively.

Ok so I think the above pictures are looking north? Towards my left anyway. LOL The following pics are looking south den? Looking right. Woteva. The tallest structure you see is part of the Science Center Museum. The parking structure in the back ground is part of the Chase Ballfield. On da ada side of dat parking place get Chase Ballpark.

Also to the very right is da Marketplace Stage where had da opening ceremony. No can see cause of da trees and the angle yeah. The pic-cha above is before all da peoples wen go come stay go. LOL

Nobody stay yet but me. This is looking down where all da vendors are set up.

This down da ada side. Eh, whose shadow dat? The Shadow shopper…..

I get plenny moe pics to blog. Ua pau fo’now.

Well I took ukupila pic-chas at Aloha Festival. Ok if I’m in the picture, then I didn’t take it. LOL Obviously. It was either Daughta, Son or DH. But I enjoyed taking pictures. Especially still life. LOL Um’cause it doesn’t move. I am having a hell of a time downloading’um doe, is it me or da bucket. You know da photobucket. Dat bucket. Anyway I will do little by little cause, its taking fo’eva and I don’t have patience. Attention deficit, I go do something else kine.

Opening ceremony. 100 Ipu heke’s? 60 or 70 maybe. There are people on the stage, behind the stage and up on the hill. It sounded good. I know its one manini picture but you get the idea. Do you see me? LOL I’m in there some where. I’m not telling. hehehe

This is me and my friend CH. No tell her this pic-cha is in here cause she might open up a can of whoopass. LOL But look how pretty her ipu is. Its painted by one of her cousins I think she said.

This is a “closer” look at Opening Ceremony. We did Liliu’e. Try look in da middle. LOL Unco has one ipu heke tall as me. No joke. Bugga is one serious natural true bass. It sounds real awesome.

This is our group dancing MIHI AU IA OE. It a Tahitian aparima. Real pretty song. Go youtube and search it and I think you’ll be able to hear the song.

Ms Thang ~ LOL Do I look like a Sole? Yeah and proud of it. hehehe The flowers are pretty huh? Obviously I didn’t take this picture. Its all about composition huh? I took a photography class in college. But it was black & white, play with chemicals develope your own kine.

Dancing Ka Loke:

Dancing Pua Hone:

Our finale. Dancing Ua Mau:

K~dats it. Ua pau fo’now.

Also known as ~ get pictures NOW. So I wrote da stories awreddy. Here’s da pictures.

My first eva ipu heke.

This is a picture of my ipu heke, my store bought ipu (with black cord) and da ipu I made. I haven’t put a cord on da one I made because it would require a drill. I don’t have one. But if I did have one I’d be too afraid I’d ruin it. Besides the neck is really narrow, its comfortable in my hand, I don’ think it needs one for now. I need to go take drill 101 before I attempt to make any pukas in a gourd.

My ipu heke bag. If you have an ipu heke, you must have a ipu heke bag. Sooooo I created this. Its from scrap material that I had and prequilted material I all ready had too. The black cord was suppose to be used to make a cord for the ipu heke. BUT I was too lazy to sew strips for make the tie, so I just used the cord. So then I had to practice braid 4strands so I used material.

So those are my pictures of my new craft I learned. Cool huh? I have one more small ipu heke I going try try make on my own. My friend and I switched pieces. She had this small gourd and when she paired it with the big gourd, it came out looking like ET. You know da ET Phone home guy. So I told her I had two extra gourds in da dirt and maybe one of mines will work. So I took my 2 gourds ova deya. She took one and she put da ET’s head looking one on da extra one and said “here these match.” So I’m gonna make that. I guess it all ready has a name huh, ET? But it won’t look like ET any more. But its ET’s head. LOL

Its been a while since I’ve been to a HS Basketball game. If you’ve every watched REZ Ball aka basketball played on the Rez (reservation) its run and gun. Cracked me up because one of da refs was sucking wind big time after only one quarter, you could see his chest heaving up and down real hard while the kids and the other refs didn’t even look like they were running.

I attended the finals of the Native American Basketball Invitational held at US Airways Arena, home of the Arizona Mercury - pro wahine basketball. Ran into some old friends haven’t seen in a long while, always nice to reconnect yeah, catch up on the kids. I didn’t recognize the one they had with them, it was the oldest boy and I just could not see it. I asked him do you have your baby picture with you? His mom was like “thats the oldest one” OMG you mean the one MY oldest one use to babysit? Wow.

DH is on a board of a nonprofit, and on that board is a board memeber of another board so we were invited to “da suite” ~ you know where they have all the special seating and its “sponsored” meaning there’s free munchies la dat. LOL So I was VIP of da day. Enjoyed watching da game and peoples from my new perch. Feeling all exclusive and all dat. LOL We were told if we wanted to go down court side we just had to take the elevator down to the floor they would escort us courtside. Dang ~ good seats.

Girls final, 4Love of the Game (Muskogee-Creek Nation, Henrietta, OK) vs 4Corners (Dine’ Nation) View from da suite:

Boys championship final, C&A of Oklahoma (Cheyanne & Arapahoe, Concho(?), OK) vs. 4Love of the Game (Muskogee-Creek Nation, Henrietta, OK) Courtside seats:

You can learn more about NABI at www.nabihoops.com/2007 Its a yearly tourney that people travel to from all over the country. They have some really good games. Anyway I think so, because I’m a spectator sport kind of person. What I’ve learned is if I can tell a foul and the ref doesn’t call it, the ref must really suck. I also recognize payback calls, probably cause I have alot of friends who are refs too. LOL

SCORCH the Phoenix Mercury mascot:

Da Gorilla, the Phoenix Suns mascot:

Courtside on my left I was sitting next to a Grandpa and he was talking to somebody behind me and to his left. Then he was showing them his rings. I wasn’t really paying attention but DH was. He asked the Grandpa what the rings were from & DH showed him his AZ State HS Basketball ring from 1995.

Anyway the rings were HUGE sparkley bling bling fo’real diamonds not no CZ going on. One ring was from the Diamondbacks world series and the one pictured below is the White Sox championship or was it Red. Me I’m not all dat sports minded, wot do I know I just go fo’eat type. LOL So I asked da Grandpa, “Did you play?” He’s like “oh no.” So I look at him, “So are you the owner?” He just laughed at me, “no I’m with the front office.” Allrighty then. Here’s a pic of one of his bling bling pieces.

I think I’m getting the hang of this posting pictures bit. Can you tell? But resizing……um’ I don’t get it. That may take another year or two to learn LOL

Its so hot you can make smores on da sidewalk, in your car, where ever there’s no A/C!

Mesa, AZ

104F FRI: 106F / 83F SAT: 106F /

Given a choice though; freeze ass cold or stay inside cause its too dang hot? I like to think I handle heat betta den cold. Heat assuming there is air conditioning that goes wit da heat.

Actually with me eda way I’m screwed. Its called no thermostat. My docta explained it this way; if people around are cold, you are colder and people around you are hot you are hotter. So dat means wot, stop bitching & moaning? LOL

Do you think its global warming? Its global something ain’t it? 100 year floods, catagory 5 hurricanes, tsunamis, record tempertures high or low….somethings going on ya’think?

Remember these days:

Back in da day of watching da sun go down. Small time, HS times; me & friends we all had da same house rules. You suppose to be in da house before da sun go down.

Well kolohe HS titas dat us was use go down Pokai bay because my friend had this “boyfriend” and we use to sit on da tables by Pokai Bay or hangout close to that apartment building right on Pokai Bay. Sometimes we wouldn’t have a ride home and we would wait and wait. We just talkstory watching da sun go down.

We measured ds sun off da horizon wit our fingers, each finga we estimated as being 15 minutes. One hour we just talking away, 30 minutes…eh you guys we going get lickings. Talking talking still yet. The space between the sun & the horizon is less den one fingah width….you guys we going get licking. Talking about getting dirty lickings, rememba da last time, you going get grounded, so wot I no caya. Yeah you do.

The edge of the sun is below da horizon. Too late now, us all going get lickings. Yeah, us go stowa. LOL

Pic-cah Queen of da week is running amuck here. Borderline OCD-ing.

This is where I should have been today but obviously not. Wishful thinking in pictures. Now that I know how……let me look for moe! LOL

I don’t surf but love watching.

Don’t we all have dis picture. You see me, you see me…way ova deya by da creek way da fresh watah come out…..aaaa psyche….

I know I should be writing….but why ruin da pic-chas. hehehehe k-pau.

My new signacha:

Can you see me now? Pic-cha notQueen, specho ed I tell you. Let me know if get or not.

You know dis pic-cha business is harder for me den you guys tink. Slowly but surely I stay gettum. Took me hours to find da pic-chas dat came outta da camera. I tawt I had to sendem to me or something, I didn’t get it? Seriously. Not funny. Ok very funny…. sshheessshh if you guys knew how long it took me to gett’um in da bucket you guys would be rolling on da ground.. BUT EH wot I said…oh yeah yeah yeah hello da topic;

Sewing projects ~ K:

Below is a graduation quilt (thats only 2-3 months late) I put it together yesterday. I had da blocks done. The strips were cut out. Then my #1 came ova & she says “rememba I going OK on Wed or maybe Tues night.” OMG wait wait wait. I told her she no can leave till I pau put togedda da quilt top so she can go givem’ to her Grandma, so G’ma can have her friend machine quilt it.

Da Butterfly quilt ~ Da butterfly is the symbol of my daughters sororiety and it represents the stages of life, of womanhood. You know da kine from larve to catapilla to pupa to buttafly…

These are two baby blankets I just pau. Da “honu” is my signature. I’m getting a label dat says by NT Honu but in da mean time I like dis honu. I think I juss put da label unda da honu so just can see da NT Honu part.

K k k one more from Ms Piccha Queen of da week cause as all pic-chas get awreddy. LOL

The piece below is a work in progress. Its was sitting collecting dust for months maybe a year I don’t remember anden I saw a picture of jacaranda trees? Jacaround trees? no no no, where is my mind. I know I’m going to hell, but first…I saw da pic-cha a purple trees and was like “dats da colors of my quilt thats collecting dust.” It was a sign to finish the piece awreddy.

The quilt pattern is called Ahinahina aka silversword. I used the white on white aloha print material, you know da wedding material kine. Its on this lavendar aloha print material with quilt patterns on it. I suppa sized da pattern cause I figgah, da bigga da ting da less I have to puinsai. OMGawd, I am going to hell huh?

Anyway this is going to be my quilt whenever its finished. So funny cause I make dis kine stuff and I givem as presents or its fo’da kids or donation woteva. It finally dawned on me, EH wea mines? So dis ones mines. I get one ada wall hanging project I go pic-cha’um wen pau, get plenny moe fo’do. It’s for a silent auction in Octoba….

MY “NOT jacaraonda” quilt to be:

I love fruit punch and different kine Hawaiian Sun juice. Only in Hawaii yeah you can order one “large lilikoi.” Plenny ice. I’m thinking Leewards Drive, large lilikoi and special fry noodle; oh and one pineapple coconut turnova. Hmmmmm that would hit da spot right now.

Oh duh, JUICE. I’ve learned that I cannot, OK I can; but I not suppose to or shouldn’t drink this kine juice. Like Hawaiian Sun juice……because its shoot my sugar real high. The only time my blood sugar has gone up into the 190’s 200’s is afta I’ve drank a can of juice. Sad yeah. I’m not diabetic diabetic but I’m borderline enough to know if I drink juice all da time, I will be.

Anyway I don’t think one nice tall glass of lilikoi wit plenny ice would hurt right now. 113 Degrees!